Melange Fine Food & Catering

Location

Superb Middle Eastern takeout dishes set the three Mélanges apart from the usual delis. Lamb stew is terrific, scented with cumin and nutmeg and full of carrots, onions, red pepper and parsley, while small maroon Egyptian eggplants, stuffed with parsley, garlic, vinegar and hot peppers, are spicy and delicious. Middle Eastern desserts are excellent. - Eric Asimov (5/98)

Carlos Swepson, a New York chef with roots in Natchez, Miss., is not reinventing the Southern-food wheel, but he is trying to make it a smoother ride. His best food — like wood-smoked chicken, crisp wild grouper with a cornmeal crust, and exemplary Southern potato salad (with chopped hard-boiled eggs) — is pressed right up against tradition, but tweaked for modern taste.Complete Review »

The specialty here is patacón, the formidable sandwich of the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela, bookended not by bread but by unripe plantains that have been fried, smashed and fried again. The small but sleek storefront traces its origins back to 2005, when Liliana Velazquez, a native of Maracaibo, started selling patacónes out of a truck in Inwood, ManhattanComplete Review »